LIZ!

Category: Uncategorized

it took me forever to find that ELO song. mostly because i’m not that familiar with their song titles. except for “Telephone Lines” for some reason.

anyway, the one with the violin is “Livin’ Thing”

liz, is it my superpower that i can pick out parts of songs in other songs? or is it my heroic flaw? one of many? hee!

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they let Squeaky Fromme out?!

Category: Uncategorized

really?

was this in the press before? because this is the first i’d heard of it, and it seems like it would’ve been talked about y’know? weird.

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liberry donations and their secrets (OT will like this one)

Category: dribblings

at the ‘brary we get lots of donated books, magazines, videos, etc., and we greatly appreciate all donations (unless the books are mildewed and full of bugs. then we judge you. not on your cleanliness, just on your thinking that we would want your mildewed, stinky, bug-infested books. if your books are gross we toss them. we don’t even want them in our building.) if we can’t use the books (clean, mildew-free, no silverfish) that are donated in our own collection, we put them in our on-going booksale. and the people who donate the books know this. we tell them up front, “hey, if the cataloguer decides not to keep any of these for the collection they will go to the booksale.” and if they have a problem then they can take the books back or leave them. i’ve never had anyone take the books back.

all this to say: if you’re going to donate some books to the ‘brary? might be a good idea to fan through them first to make sure there’s nothing stuck between the pages. we find lots of letters, postcards, photographs, airline tickets, grocery lists, and sometimes we find crazy things.

so hannah, west, and i were in the booksale section looking for books to buy so we could make art projects out of them. well, hannah was buying them to read, but west and i were looking for books to cut up. in one of the books hannah was looking at these two largish bookmarks (these were free bookmarks we had up at the desk about 3 years ago. they’re about IRS tax info websites and how to e-file.) fell out and they were covered in purple and blue handwriting. the words all over these bookmarks are awesome in that why is this stuff written on these bookmarks, but they’re sad overall. i’ve tried to space it out like it is on the back of the bookmark and it seems like the blue parts are written in as afterthoughts. here goes:

1. The day we married, he said
    I didn’t kiss him
    I don’t remember at all It was at
    home I guess I might
    have been embarassed
2. I don He said
    I didn’t care for
    his family – He
    always went over
    board with my family
    I never told him
    to only his mother
3. I didn’t help
    him enough when
    his daddy died.
    So much hurt
   had transpired
  (before that happened)
      maybe I didn’t
4. He blamed me
    for his Daddy
    dying – (it had
   been a bad week-
   end) it was smoking
   heart disease &
   other stuff.
         not me
5. Didn’t talk good
    to him when he (back)
     traveled.  Have
    no Idea what he
    is talking about
    His comment no one
   would have stayed
         with me 
When he traveled
the minute he got
home he called
them and talked
to way in the
morning – he sure
didn’t miss me

okay that was the first bookmark. here’s the second:

He said my family
does not hug
and show emotion
maybe that is
why I needed
it from him –
so much
so much
how about
affection
once in a blue
moon
6. He is always
telling me I
am pushing him
over the edge
His edge is right on his
shoulder
He did that at the
cabin when I
wanted him to
help me move
furniture in off
porch – never time for me  so I could
go on out to Mother’s
He wanted to take
Munchie on a walk to the creek 1st and
a long way off
me wait. The
night before I
had waited in
the cold while
he walked Munchie
I had to wait
at the Tomato house –

and that’s all that’s written on the second one.

sad, yes? i know. this is a lesson for all of you, okay?
1. if you’re going to journal, keep it in a journal.
2. CHECK YOUR BOOKS BEFORE YOU DONATE.
3. that guy’s an asshole.

bonus is, of course, that we have a new catch phrase, “I had to wait at the Tomato house.”

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‘brary stories on a Monday

Category: dribblings

a lady returns some books and i say to her, “you’ve returned everything that was on your card but there is a fine of $1.20.”

“no, i paid that last time.”

“oh, well, maybe you-”

“no, i know i paid that last time.”

“yes, but this-”

“i’m not paying it again. i already paid that.”

“ma’am, the fine is for the books you just returned.”

“but i paid that last time.”

“no, ma’am, the fine… is on the books that you returned today. the ones in my hand right now.”

“…you mean those were late?”

“yes, by two days.”

“oh.”

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The Girl With the Blog Contest

Category: dribblings

okay kids, it’s like this:

to promote the U.S. release of Stieg Larsson’s The Girl Who Played With Fire, (sequel to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) Knopf Publishing (a division of Random House) has asked some bloggers to hold contests on they’re blogs (the contests are blogger’s choice) and they will provide the prizes for said contest. the prizes are a copy of The Girl Who Played With Fire and some temporary dragon tattoos.

all of this should have gone down back in May, i think, because the book came out in July.

they left me a comment in July about it and that’s when i signed up for the contest figuring why not? it could be fun. then i never heard back from anyone. i had to leave a phone number and an e-mail addy, but i didn’t hear either way if i was in the contest or not. so i figured either i had not responded in time, or that they went back and read my review of the The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and figured maybe i wasn’t the fan they thought i was. (it was a good book, but since it’s this huge international best seller i thought it should’ve been better or at least less annoying than it was. still, i wanted to read the sequel.)

then, last week, out of nowhere a copy of the book was on my doorstep (the envelope had been ripped open and taped back together. shenanigans?) so hey, contest on! however, there was a note inside saying they were out of the tattoos and as soon as they get some more printed up they’ll mail them. i’ve yet to get the tattoos.

so it seems a bit slapdash and late, AND i’ve yet to receive the tattoos, but i figure i better go ahead and post this contest or they’ll think i was just trying to scam a free book out of them. which i’m not. i had the library order a copy and that’s the copy i’m currently reading. so if you win, know that the copy i send you is fresh and unread!

The Girl Who Played With Fire Contest

the rules:
i’m lazy and cheap, and i will only mail this thing as far as the continental U.S. (sorry Alaska, Hawaii, and Iraq!)

all you have to do to enter is make up a title/plot/book cover (your choice. or do all three, however far you want to take it) of a fake Swedish crime fiction book and e-mail it to me (fleegan at gmail dot com).

the funniest one wins. remember, i’m a sucker for clever too.

if they send the tattoos (depending on how many there are) the first place will get the book and a tattoo and the runners-up will get tattoos (once again, depending on how many tats there are.) yes, slapdash, but i’m working with what they give me.

since there are only about 6 of you who regularly visit this site, i see no real problems other than the fact that the 6 of you don’t read Scandinavian crime fiction and probably don’t care a thing about winning this book. but hey, maybe now’s the time for you to get interested in international crime fiction, yeah?

today is the 6th of August, so let’s say that the contest ends on the 6th of September 2009. yay!

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26. Cooperstown Confidential: Heroes, Rogues, and the Inside Story of the Baseball Hall of Fame by Zev Chafets

Category: 50 Books

26. Cooperstown Confidential: Heroes, Rogues, and the Inside Story of the Baseball Hall of Fame by Zev Chafets

I figured it was apropos to read this during the last week of July, yeah? For those of you who may not know, the last weekend in July is when they induct the newly elected players into the Baseball Hall of Fame. If there are any, that is, sometimes no one gets voted in. (And if you think the way we elect a president is bizarre, you’ll laugh your head off at how the Hall of Fame works.)

It’s an interesting book, short and sweet, and it’s a good overview of the history of the shrine as well as the overall problems with it: racial bias, perfomance enhancing drugs, the character clause, and Pete Rose.

Mr. Chafets does a great job explaining things so that if you’re a new fan of the game it’s easy to get what’s going on, and if you’re an old fan there’s some really good recent baseball dish out there. (Hugo Chavez?! What in the what now?!)

I haven’t read Bill James’s Whatever Happened to the Hall of Fame? so I’m not sure how they compare. I imagine Mr. James’s book is more about how some people shouldn’t be in the Hall because they don’t have the numbers to back up such an honor. Chafets does touch on that subject but it’s more an overview than any real complaining. Besides, who could do a better job than Bill James on that subject, right?

There were two sentences that I really enjoyed (you know my weakness for clever) the first of which is about Ted Spencer the head curator of the Hall of Fame:

As a boy growing up in Boston, Spencer rooted for the Red Sox and dreamed of becoming an artist. The combination of art and baseball has been helpful in trying to blend Cooperstown’s traditional Norman Rockwell portrait of American baseball with the United Colors of Benetton realities of the modern age. (p. 76 – 77)

The other one was about how if the sportswriters/Hall of Fame keep using steroids as an excuse to keep great ball players out of the Hall (especially when the ONLY proof has been hearsay. AND the fact that there’s no real study on the effects of PEDs and they’re effects [positive or negative] on baseball players.) then the Hall of Fame is going to end up more of a popular clique than any sort of actual honor. Chafets writes:

On the other hand, if the Hall of Fame decides to exclude the greatest players in baseball because a bunch of baseball writers – in conformity to Clark family values – think they lack character, Cooperstown will become about as relevant and as interesting as Colonial Williamsburg. (p. 193)

If you’re not a baseball fan it’s probably not interesting to you, but if you’re a rookie to the sport or an old timer, it’s an enjoyable and interesting read.

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5 quarts

Category: dribblings

i was driving by the autoparts place today and the sign promoting the sales du jour had something about buying 5 quarts of something, probably oil. but the 5 looked like an S. and i thought it said squarts. i don’t think squart is a word. but now it’s stuck in my head.

***

tomorrow: a contest?

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fauxtography

Category: dribblings

so my best pal, laura, once used the phrase, “chance favors the prepared mind.” to which i replied, “you know- wait. what?” and then she explained to me what that meant. i know, you guys think i’m really smart and all, but nay, i’m not. i just fumble through life stealing things my smart friends say and i post them here like they’re mine.

i just reread that and it sounds like we were having a convo and she just busts out all, “chance favors the prepaed mind” out of nowhere. it wasn’t like that. i said something about something, and that was her response. and then i responded with my, “huh?”

so she explains it like it means… look, i can’t explain it, i’m in a hurry and i’ve had ten cups of coffee. i can’t concentrate, and while i type this out i’m already 4 sentences ahead in my head. so it’s not a good day for explaining. and for that i’m sorry.

so now, when i see something or read something and that subject/image/word/song keeps popping up in my life (i usually say that something “haunts” me. like last year with Lillian Hellman. every time i turned around one of her plays was on TV or i’d come across her in one of the bios i was reading or blah blah blah.) hence, “chance favors the prepared mind.” (is it similar to serendipity? synchronicity? i don’t know. i just can’t concentrate.)

all of THAT to say that lately i’ve been “haunted” by tilt-shift photography. i came across an article (in something at the library, but i can’t remember what.) on it months ago and i thought it was quirky and fun. then i forgot all about it. but it seemed like a month after that i kept seeing tilt-shift photography in different places. There was this awesome collection, and it’s on some of the [adult swim] bumps. i’ve seen it on a few commercials (one is with nuns crossing the street), and it’s even on the opening credits of The Dollhouse.

i love that it’s a trick. i love any trick of the eye, really. i’m a sucker for clever, you know this, it’s my heroic flaw.

well, it’s ONE of my heroic flaws.

my MAIN heroic flaw: that i have multiple heroic flaws. ha!

shut up your face.

ANYway. i want to do this tilt-shift photo stuff. i do.
look, i know it’s probably taboo to admit that, but i’m not a photograhper, right? i’m a hobbyist type person. so i lose no cred for admitting that i want to do scammy/hacky photo tricks for kicks. i’m an artist. i’ll stoop to all kinds of lowness for an idea/concept/image… even if it means fakey photo tricks.

the problem with this is that i don’t even own a real camera much less the very expensive lens needed to create these images.  after looking as some of the pictures you can see what’s going on, they pick one focal point and blur the rest then they amp up the color saturation to make it look more fake then bam, your picture looks like it’s made of toys instead of real things. i figure you can do all that in photoshop, yeah?

well, i don’t have photoshop. and if i had it? i wouldn’t know how to begin to use it because there’s loads of bells and whistles in that program, and who has time for that? but hey, this is 2009. and in 2009 you can find ANYTHING on the internet! i found two fake tilt-shift makers that allow you to upload your own photos and manipulate them into what looks like a tilt-shift style. they’re not perfect, but damn, they’re free, right?

so i found an applicable pic i took back in 2004 when my father and i were painting the roof of the Holy Comforter House.

the first fake tilt-shift maker i used was the Tilt-Shift Generator. it’s easy to use but it’s actually an app for iphones. so it made the picture small and grainy- like a cell phone picture. still, free.

 

the second fake tilt-shift maker is tiltshiftmaker.com and it’s controls were more limited, but it made  a better quality picture. also: free.

that’s all i’ve got. for now.

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Tunes for Tots ’09

Category: dribblings

STEAL THIS GRAPHIC

here’s the awesome graphic for this year’s Tunes For Tots! put it up on your facebooks and myspaces and blogs and innernets, okay? thank you! you guys are the bombs.

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25. Seasons in Hell: with Billy Martin, Whitey Herzog and “The Worst Baseball Team in History” the 1973 – 1975 Texas Rangers by Mike Shropshire

Category: 50 Books

25. Seasons in Hell: with Billy Martin, Whitey Herzog and “The Worst Baseball Team in History” the 1973 – 1975 Texas Rangers by Mike Shropshire

Long title. Short, hilarious book.

My favorite line from the book is, “Once again, the fact was underscored that the Texas Rangers were not really a baseball franchise but rather a Kurt Vonnegut novel.”

This is one of the more entertaining baseball books I’ve read in a while. It’s not really a traditonal baseball book that describes play-by-play action in tons of games, it’s more like a behind-the-scenes look of traveling with a losing baseball team in the 1970s. So basically is about booze and fist fights. AWESOME.

Shropshire does seem to make everything into a joke, and it kind of gets old, however, he’s writing about “the Worst Baseball Team in History” so it’s kind of necessary, I guess.

You do not have to be a Rangers’ fan to like this book. (i’ve never even met a Rangers’ fan.) You might enjoy it more if you’re a baseball fan, but it’s not very technical so even if you aren’t it would still be a humorous read.

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